Introduction
This page provides access to selected primary source collections, organized by time period. Primary sources are original materials that document an era or event, created by someone who witnessed or lived through it. Examples include letters, diaries, photographs, manuscripts, magazines, and newspapers. Additional subject specific guides are linked at the top of this page and in the left hand box below.
Document Collections by Time Period
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1-5 This link opens in a new window
This collection of historical periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society documents life in America from the Colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Cover-to-cover digitizing gives access not only to the main text, but also to advertisements, illustrations, obituaries, cover art, and more.
- American County Histories to 1900 This link opens in a new windowEncyclopedic in coverage, county histories support both historical and genealogical research. Topics range from churches and ministers to weather, wars, industry, education and more.
- American Periodicals Series (Collection I) This link opens in a new window
This collection includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines, journals, and newspapers published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines.
- Arte Publico Hispanic Historical Collection This link opens in a new window
A digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature, politics, and culture from colonial times to the 20th century. Series 1 and 2 contain advertisements, books, broadsides, essays, newspapers, pamphlets, short stories and more.
- ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new windowThis rich collection of federal records, letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, and diaries is organized in five subject categories: 1) Black Freedom Struggle; 2) NAACP Papers; 3) Slavery and the Law; 4) Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records; and 5) Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975.
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
North American Women's Letters and Diaries offers a large collection of women's diaries and correspondence spanning more than 300 years.
- Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Published histories and records of women’s reform organizations throughout the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes The History of Woman Suffrage; proceedings of the national conventions of female Anti-Slavery societies in the 1830s and of women’s rights conventions in the 1850s and 1860s; annual reports of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; and local and national histories of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.
- Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954 This link opens in a new windowMaterial is sourced from the American Jewish Historical Society, New York. It contains primary sources on the history of Jewish immigration to the United States, life and culture among the Jewish population there, and records of business and trade from Jewish-owned companies.
- Evans, 1639-1800 (Early American Imprints, Series I) This link opens in a new window
This collection of books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America in the 17th and 18th centuries includes items listed in Charles Evans’s American Bibliography and Roger Bristol’s supplement. The database is cross-searchable with Shaw-Shoemaker (Early American Imprints, Series II), American Pamphlets, Series I: 1820-1922, and American Broadsides & Ephemera.
- Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
Material from the Newberry Library’s Edward E. Ayer Collection contains early contacts between Europeans and American Indians and the subsequent political, social and cultural effects of those encounters on American Indian life. It covers the period from early western frontier through the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century.
- Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment explores relationships between Native American, African, and European peoples from 1534-1850, using primary sources and personal accounts.
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions. It consists of books, serials, manuscript collections, supreme court records and briefs, reference articles, and encyclopedias.
The database is in four parts: Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition; Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World; Part III: The Institution of Slavery and Part IV: The Age of Emancipation.
- American Founding Era: Rotunda This link opens in a new window
Rotunda’s American Founding Era Collection offers primary and secondary source documents from some of the most preeminent figures of that age. This collection includes the papers of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madision, Dolly Madision, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, John Jay and more.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a digitized library representing most of the significant English- and foreign-language texts published in Great Britain and the colonies during the eighteenth century. Subject access to this collection is provided by the British Library’s online English Short Title Catalogue.
- Revolutionary War Era Orderly Books This link opens in a new windowRevolutionary War Era Orderly Books, from the New York Historical Society, offers access to handwritten volumes documenting military orders, movements and engagements by brigade, regiment, company and other specific military units between 1748 and 1817. The content also provides detailed accounts of troops daily lives, documenting everything from court martial cases to the price of necessities charged by locals.
- Everyday Life and Women in America, c1800-1920 This link opens in a new windowAmerican social, cultural, and popular history during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to periodicals by and about African Americans. Representing 26 states, the publications offer a range of material, including academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations’ bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
- Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1820 (Early American Imprints, Series II) This link opens in a new windowThis collection of books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America from 1801 to 1820 is based on the American Bibliography, 1801-1819 of Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. The database is cross-searchable with Evans, 1639-1800 (Early American Imprints, Series I); American Pamphlets, Series I: 1820-1922; American Broadsides & Ephemera; Evans Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800 and Shaw-Shoemaker Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1801-1819.
Access requires on-campus authentication. - Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Primary source material from 18th and 19th Century periodicals. Included in the collection is Godey's Lady's Book, The Civil War: A Soldier's Perspective, African American newspapers, American county histories and various other newspapers, gazettes and collections.
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions. It consists of books, serials, manuscript collections, supreme court records and briefs, reference articles, and encyclopedias.
The database is in four parts: Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition; Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World; Part III: The Institution of Slavery and Part IV: The Age of Emancipation.
- The American Civil WarVisit this guide for information on UA's extensive collection of materials on the American Civil War.
- Slavery in the SouthThis guide provides access to UA's resources on slavery in the American South and the global slave trade.
- Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives This link opens in a new windowThis collection of primary resources documents the history, culture, and politics of the 1960s and early 1970's. Included are diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to periodicals by and about African Americans. Representing 26 states, the publications offer a range of material, including academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations’ bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
- African American Communities This link opens in a new window
This collection explores the African American community in Atlanta, Chicago, Brooklyn, and North Carolina, highlighting challenges of racism, discrimination, and integration, as well as their unique culture and identity.
- African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the full text of historically significant African American newspapers, published in 36 states.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Full-text archive of many important magazines documenting the early days of the film, television and popular music industries. Notably, includes Billboard (1894-2000), Variety (1905-2000), and The Stage (1880-2000).
Selected Internet Sources - Texts & Media
Many archives make their primary source documents available freely online. See especially the following:
- Digital Public Library of AmericaA project to gather together multiple digital collections into one unified search interface
- Electronic Texts in American StudiesOpen access digitized historical texts from the University of Nebraska.
- American Memory This link opens in a new window
Gateway to primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States.
- Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.
Alabama Resources
- Selected Resources for Alabama Counties, Birmingham Public LibraryThis finding aid of materials at BPL includes census records, cemetery records, church histories & records. Materials are not digitized; all are available for use at BPL.
- Alabama Government ResourcesA guide from the University of South Alabama.
- Alabama Department of Archives & HistoryOfficial archives of the state of Alabama.
- Alabama MapsAn ongoing project of the Cartographic Research Laboratory, which operates under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama.
- American County Histories to 1900Includes Alabama counties.
- Hoole Special Collections LibraryArchives and historical collections relating to state and university history.
- A. S. Williams III Americana CollectionA collection of historical documents with an emphasis on the South.